Ameriprise Financial Advisors

I’d give them zero stars, if it were an option… Let’s begin with their model. Not unlike Edward Jones, these Ameriprise representatives are forced to eek out their own living while under this disguise of Ameriprise being some big, national brokerage. Consequently, you’ll get their attention only as a new client — after that, you’ll be on your own. You get as much attention here as you can afford, which for the average investor means you’ll get almost none. The reps then divert your needs to their main office where you will get the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE in the industry. I can say this having been a client with Fidelity, Charles Schwab and UBS. Their online security is draconian and impossible to work with, but don’t get your hopes up if you think working on the phone is any better. Their phone reps are poorly trained and have no other agenda than to follow their own, narrow rules.
There are so many other and better options out there. Don’t make the mistake of wasting your time and valuable capital in Ameriprise. There is really no reason to.

Not only myself, but also my spouse and parents were completely unsatisfied with the financial planning we all got. The advisor was named Gary Cruff, and his service was very poor, in hindsight it seemed like all he cared about was making a quota to sell us insurance and open Ameriprise accounts. We all feel like we paid to get had. Similar to another person’s review, immediately we were all sold various insurances, even though they didn’t make sense with our income ability. These insurances start at one rate and their fees keep going up, and the circumstances to tap into them are ridiculous, really you get the sense it’s just the planner is in it to make money off you.

The plan Gary came up with sucked. He promised this and that, and when it was all said and done and we ran into problems we never heard from him and he never followed up on all the things he «planned.» He was supposed to coordinate the transition from our bank account and he said he’d do all these things to ensure the transition was smooth and be the rep for the Ameriprise account he insisted we opened; and the first month of it our mortgage payment fell through the cracks of his planning… opps; that was a headache we had to fix, not him.
It was my first experience with a planner and I never ever ever want to go to one again. He also took advantage of trying to link with my social network of friends to promote his services, which also left a negative experience for me. Save your $$$ you can get the same advice if you get a book on budgeting; Gary Cruff Just makes it all seem good, but in the end it’s baloney…

I am so happy to be DONE with Ameriprise! They are the worst in customer service, and LOVE to charge maintenance fees, trade fees, etc. You will never get any support from them regarding investing guidance, risk balance and allocation, emerging markets, nothing. Their online portal is not bad, but you cannot talk to anyone about investing, or they charge you full service fees.
I’ve moved my account to Schwab in Menlo Park. They are AWESOME. Their online portal is easy to use AND you can call them if you have any trading questions.

My personal experience with Ameriprise Auto Insurance. I was hit by a car that made left turn without looking. That car was insured by Ameriprise Insurance. I made several attempts to call the agent at Amerprise Auto Insurance to settle the claim. Never got a call back. After 3 months still no call back. I was only until my auto body shop filed a claim towards them that I got a response. They SAID I WAS 10% LIABLE!!! WTF@@!! The at fault driver even said in her hear statement she did NOT LOOK TO HER LEFT, Currently, out 2000k to fix out pocket. I spoke with my lawyer and other insurance firms and they said that this is how Ameriprise does business. THIS IS A HORRIBLE FIRM! CORRUPT! THEY CARE ABOUT $$ MONEY ONLY. This is only car insurance, how can anyone trust them with life insurance and your retirement. Another example of a big corporation that only care about the bottom line. STAY AWAY!!!

I think the reviewer complaining about the «free lunch”/sales pitch from Ameriprise is talking about only one employee, this couldn’t possibly be a common practice there (understandably, experience must have been extremely annoying).
I have been going to Dan Chang, CFP at this same S. Bascom office for 4+ years now. He made good investment choices for me when the economy was at its worst a couple years ago and I have been very happy with him. He charges clients on a % of money managed (receives no commissions on buys or sells). He is honest, knowledgeable, ethical and personable.

You can find the other Ameriprise reviews at the 1999 S Bascom address, but 1919 S Bascom Ste 100 is the *correct* street address for Ameriprise advisors.
I liked my financial advisor (keep in mind it’s a minimum $ 500/​year fee), but ultimately I just do not trust Ameriprise due to their dubious/​fraudulent banking practices.
Examples (some of which were touched on in other Ameriprise reviews for the 1999 S Bascom address):
— All Ameriprise accounts have a $ 20/​quarter ($ 80/​annual) fee, which can be waived if you have more than $ 3K direct deposit into the account every quarter. However, one time they still assessed the $ 20 charge (which they removed after I called them and spent 30 minutes finding out why they charged it in the first place). Oh, and they weren’t able to tell me why I was «mistakenly» charged — just that it was a «computer error.» Really, do I want to trust my money at an institution where computer errors occur that randomly charges fees on their customers’ accounts, AND THEY DON’T KNOW WHY?
— Roth IRA accounts have a $ 40 annual fee + $ 100 closure fee (I was not informed of this when I opened my account).
— It’s almost impossible to reconcile your Ameriprise account activity because you’ll have all these seemingly random negative withdrawals (which, after another 30 minutes on the phone, I found out was actually positive additions to the account, to balance out something or other). I’m not sure I understood it, and I don’t want to ever NOT understand something on my statement.
— The quality of customer service is awful. The audio is horrible, the service takes way too long, and I have never had a phone call where it was resolved after speaking to 1 person. It’s always the operator first, then a customer service agent, then put on hold, then either that agent’s supervisor or somebody else who actually speaks proper English.
I wish I could take all my money out of there, but it’s securely locked in for 10 years.
Consider yourselves warned.

I would avoid ameriprise at all costs.
This was my first experience with a financial planner, so unwittingly I got hooked in via sales pitches at lunch. They quoted me a fixed annual price independent of my assets for initial planning and semi-​annual review. This gave an impression that they are fee based, and would not try to milk me by selling products which make them money at my expense. That was a big mistake.
They immediately tried to sell me on disability insurance and life insurance from Riversource while I have no dependents. (Riversource is a branch of ameriprise).
They also got me to open a brokerage account to invest my money in. The portfolio they provided left me with hefty tax bill at end of each year. When I now try to close this account, there is a account closure fee of $ 100.
They also got me to buy a VUL policy by hiding the downsides and only projecting the upsides. I have since been trying to get out of this policy, but am locked in for 10 years.
Stay away from them.

After numerous fish-​bowl luncheon sales pitches, I finally succummed to (in my ignorance) an expensive initial evaluation to begin the process working with an Ameriprise Financial Advisor. After the evaluation and some elementary financial planning concepts I was sent on my way being told I would be contacted within 6 months for another evaluation. I could already see he was leaning toward pushing a life insurance product on me, which made me hesitant because I have no spouse/​dependents. After not hearing back for well over 6 months I then followed up myself only to find that my advisor had since left the company. This prompted me to self-​educate myself via classes/​reading/​radio (Rob Black) to understand the financial planning process. I now manage my own finances successfully, don’t pay into expensive financial products, and would highly recommend a little self education over choosing a financial planner (up to a certain point of wealth).

I’ve been going to Ameriprise (néé American Express Financial Advisors — they split off a couple of years ago) for a few years. My advisor there is Ian McIntosh, and I give him a big thumbs up.
In the first year, we laid out my goals and what I needed to do to address them. That included figuring out a budget, determining what I need for emergency savings, deciding what to do with a 401(k) I had from a previous employer, and determining how to save for my medium-​term and long-​term goals. In the second year, we checked to make sure that I was on track, and then spent a lot of time discussing additional topics — other financial goals, whether I needed life or disability insurance, and what I could do to retire earlier.
This year, I’ve made my financial picture more difficult by buying my first home. We spent a lot of time together making sure that I was ready to make the down payment. We re-​did my budget to accommodate all of the new expenses, calculate my new need for emergency savings, and discuss how to pay my mortgage down faster. We’re also revisiting the discussion for life insurance. We’re also discussing some new financial goals further down the road, such as how to care for my parents as they get older.
I’ve been very pleased with every step of the process. I’ve never felt forced into any decision, or to be more or less aggressive in my investments. I wasn’t required to move any of my existing accounts to Ameriprise (although I did decide to move my old 401(k) away from my previous employer and into an IRA with Ameriprise). I still have my discount brokerage account, as well as a Roth IRA and money market account with Vanguard. I haven’t felt pressured to do anything. I have learned a lot about my finances, how to save money, how my financial picture will change as I continue to grow my assetts, and how the bigger market works.

I still don’t understand how a reputable company like AMEX is associated with Ameriprise.
I put one of my business cards in one of those fishbowls at a restaraunt to «Win a Free Lunch». Some lady called me, said I had «won», or been selected, and had won a free lunch!
I was asking how it all worked, when she identified she worked for «Ameriprise», and the condition of the free lunch was, I had it to eat it with her…, while she pitched me on switching my investment portfolio to Ameriprise for my all my financial/​investment needs… What? So, realizing I was a fool, I said «no thanks» then.
All they do is, go down the the line and call each person who they think would be a good fish for their investment products, at only the cost of plopping down $ 10 – 15 for a lunch, they think they can get a one-​on-​one sales call, jeez, just seemed so underhanded.

Used to be American Express Financial Advisers. Used them back in Boston and continue to use them here. My adviser is Gary Cruff. Super friendly, very knowledgeable and thorough. Just spent 3 hours with me getting my affairs in order before I go on extended leave, at no extra cost. Benefits from large network of fund managers. Have been very pleased with the performance of my portfolio.